Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to a communication apparatus, a control method thereof, and a recording medium recording a computer program.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a case has been increasing where an electronic device such as a digital camera is mounted with a station function of a wireless local area network (LAN) so that a user can use the electronic device connected to the wireless LAN as a communication apparatus. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2011-35768 discusses a method for mounting a wireless LAN function to the digital camera and uploading image data to a server via the wireless LAN.
Further, to directly connect the electronic devices to each other, an access point function (base station function) of the wireless LAN can be built in the electronics device such as the digital camera. When the access point function of the wireless LAN is mounted to the electronics device, to facilitate allocation of an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server function can be also mounted together.
The Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) Alliance set a standard of Wi-Fi Direct, which specifies a protocol for determining by which function of a wireless LAN access point and a wireless LAN station each electronic device is operated. The protocol specified by the Wi-Fi Direct is performed to automatically determine which of the electronic devices is set to be the wireless LAN access point and which is set to be the wireless LAN station, thereby improving user's convenience.
As described above, by using the electronic device such as the digital camera as the communication apparatus, the convenience can be improved. Further, since it can be automatically determined whether the communication apparatus is set to the wireless LAN access point or the wireless LAN station, a network can be easily established.
In such a state, when a user attempts to connect a certain communication apparatus to another communication apparatus, both cases of forming a new network with the another communication apparatus and of connecting the certain communication apparatus to the another communication apparatus being connected to an existing network are possible.
However, conventionally, when the user operates the certain communication apparatus to select the another communication apparatus that is to become a connection destination, the user cannot find out whether the another communication apparatus can form a new network or it is already connected to an existing network. Thus, the user has difficulty to select a desired connection destination.